1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a self-ligating bracket and more particularly, an orthodontic bracket which comprises: a bracket housing having at least two opposing sides, a rear side which is a tooth engaging side and a front side having a cavity for receiving at least one wire; and a cover plate pivotally attached to the front side of the bracket housing, and the cover plate is designed to be moveable from an open to a closed position to secure and hold the wire within said cavity of the front side of the bracket housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Science of Orthodontics has been advancing at a rapid pace in the past several years. High-tech alloy wires, used in applying orthodontic forces to teeth, were previously only available in stainless steel. The more flexible “memory” wires of today employ the use of titanium, niobium, copper and other more efficient materials. These heat activated wires allow for lower longer acting forces with more allowable deflection of the wire to engage malpositioned teeth. Wires themselves have been tied into the brackets first by steel ligatures, then elastometric ties, and most recently by self closing “doors”.
Bracket placement has always been important in Orthodontics, and the introduction of the self-ligating brackets has only stood to increase its importance. Since bracket position directly effects the force application of the archwire and ultimately the final position of the tooth, much has been said about correctly placing brackets during treatment. Positioning instruments have been devised, indirect bonding has been useful in certain cases and most recently, computer aided indirect bonding has been devised which attempts to predict the final tooth position based on a recommended bracket position.
Even using the newest and most advanced types of orthodontic brackets still requires a visit to be scheduled about 6 months after the initial application of the brackets. The purpose of these visits is to refine the position of the brackets. This appointment is focused on repositioning the brackets using a panorex to help parallel roots and improve bracket position. This “pano-repo” visit is done on all patients and may be necessary more than once during their treatment thereby requiring multiple visits to the orthodontist.
Specifically, a patient is reappointed in 6-8 weeks for a 45 minute appointment. During this visit, an average of 4-6 brackets are removed and discarded. Cement is cleaned off the tooth; the teeth are then etched, sealed, re-bracketed with new brackets and retied. The significance of this visit is that sliding reduced friction mechanics do not work if the archwire has bends in it and the high tech memory wires cannot be bent. Tooth positioning is extremely dependent upon ideal bracket positioning.
To overcome these problems, the present invention provides for a design for a bracket and pad connector that allows the bracket to be repositioned on the base without having to remove the cemented base from the tooth.
The connector of the present invention can be used on any bracket design and creates an interface between the bracket pad or base which is glued to the tooth and the bracket archwire slot itself. The archwire slot of the present invention may be either the standard style design or self ligating design.
Unlike the prior art, the connector of the present invention is strong, simple to use and allows for multiple options in bracket positioning both vertically and horizontally. Application of this connector would reduce the need to reposition brackets by recementation, and should help to reduce or eliminate the need to place compensating bends in the orthodontic archwires during treatment. The present invention would also reduce chair time requirements as well as increase treatment efficiency enabling patients to complete treatment in less time.